Shulou(Shulou.com)06/01 Report--

This article mainly introduces how to use ROX desktop to review the history of Linux, the article is very detailed, has a certain reference value, interested friends must read it!

Install ROX

Today, ROX is basically abandoned, leaving only a little debris for users to collect and sort out. Fortunately, this puzzle is relatively easy to solve, but don't be confused when you find fragments of ROX desktops in the distribution repository, because they are not all fragments of ROX desktops. Common parts of ROX-file managers (ROX-Filer) and terminals (ROXTerm)-seem to exist in most popular distribution software repositories, and you can install (and use) them as stand-alone applications. However, to run the ROX desktop, you must install both ROX-Session and the libraries it depends on.

I installed ROX on Slackware 14.2, but it should work on any Linux or BSD system.

First, you must install ROX-lib2 from its version library. To install ROX-lib2, according to its philosophy, simply download tarball, extract it, and then move the ROX-lib directory to / usr/local/lib.

Next, you will install ROX-Session. This may need to be compiled from the source code, as it is probably not in your software repository. The compilation process requires compilation tools, which are provided by default on Slackware but are often omitted in other distributions to save initial download space. Depending on your distribution, the name of the package you must install varies, so please refer to the documentation for details. For example, in the Debian distribution, you can learn about the build requirements in Debian's wiki, while in the Fedora distribution, please refer to the Fedora documentation. After the build tool is installed, execute the custom ROX-Session build script.

$. / AppRun

This script manages the build and installation itself and prompts you to need root permissions to add it as an option on your login screen.

If you have not already installed ROX-Filer from your software library, please install it before continuing.

Together, these components form a complete ROX desktop. To log in to the new desktop, log out of the current desktop session. By default, your session manager (KDM, GDM, LightDM, or XDM, depending on your settings) will continue to log in to your previous desktop, so you must overwrite it before logging in.

Use SDDM:

Use GDM:

ROX desktop features

The ROX desktop is simple by default, with a panel at the bottom of the screen and a shortcut icon to the home directory on the desktop. The panel contains some shortcuts to common locations. That's what the ROX desktop is all about, at least after installation. If you want a clock, calendar, or system tray, you need to find an application that provides these functions.

Default ROX desktop

Although there is no taskbar, when you minimize the window, it becomes a temporary icon on the desktop. You can click the icon to restore the window to its previous size and location.

The panel can also be modified. You can put different shortcuts in it and even create your own Mini Program.

It does not have an application menu, nor does it have an application shortcut in the context menu. Instead, you can navigate to / usr/share/applications manually, or you can add your application directory or directory to the ROX panel.

ROX desktop

The workflow of the ROX desktop is focused on mouse-driven, reminiscent of Mac OS 7.5 and 8 systems. With ROX-filer, you can manage permissions, file management, introspective introspection, script startup, background settings, and almost anything you can think of, as long as you are patient enough to achieve click-and-click interaction. For advanced users, this may seem slow, but ROX managed to make it relatively painless and intuitive.

Application directory, AppRun, and AppImage

The ROX desktop has an elegant convention by which a directory containing a script called AppRun can be executed like an application. This means that to make a ROX application, all you have to do is compile the code into a directory, place a script called AppRun at the root of that directory, execute the binaries you compiled, and mark the directory as executable. ROX-Filer will display a directory in the way you set it, and display a directory with special icons and colors. When you click on an application directory, ROX-Filer will automatically run the AppRun script in it. It looks and behaves like an installed application, but it is a local directory under the user's home directory and does not require special permissions.

This is a convenient feature, but it's one of those small features that feel good when you use it, because it's easy to do. It's definitely not necessary, it's just a few steps ahead of building an application locally, hiding the directory somewhere inconspicuous, and creating a quick .desktop file as your initiator. However, the concept of application directory has been used as an inspiration by the AppImage packaging system.

The above is all the contents of the article "how to revisit Linux History with ROX Desktop". Thank you for reading! Hope to share the content to help you, more related knowledge, welcome to follow the industry information channel!

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.